@Kees...thanks for the reply and I could'nt agree more with most of your comment. I understand that you may feel very patriotic. I was once. Lamestream media does such a fine job these days, and always has, but all you have to do is just scratch the surface.  

Royal families may be ok, as you say, but given the choice of going without along with most with their people, real history has shown us they usually settle on chucking them under the bus and trying really hard to forget about it.

Queen Beatrix reportedly owns around 25% of Shell and so owns 25% of the worldwide misery caused by this company. They were particulary kind and considerate to the people of Nigeria and to whistleblowers.
Queen Beatrix also has a lot to do with Bilderburg, who are so busy making plans for us all, that they just haven't the time to tell us what those plans are. Details that have slipped out don't resemble anything benevolent to the people of the world, let alone a fine people such as the Dutch.

I'm sorry to say Kees, but most royals are monsters behind the scenes and use their countries like cash cows. Ever watched "Unlawful Killing"?
Cheers

Borgias prove that the ownership of ultimate decree d power of the citizenry often turns into a bloodbath. Monarchies offer an outdated concept and need to be downgraded especially in this era of mass hardship. Little old ladies with jewelled crowns waving patiently at the great unwashed reflects a disjointed nation living in the past. There is no better example than Britain. Charles retains no real admiration by the hoi-polloi. William is the advertised flavour of the month with his wife featured in the DAILY MAIL fashion pages as a replacement for DIANA who was stripped of her title in disgrace for saying that "Charles was not fit to be King". Nil pointe for tact or realisation that such comments invite retribution. Britain is a country that takes tradition very seriously. Perhaps too seriuosly with a House of Lords.  The glorification of Harry in AFGHANISTAN showed how the monarchy is used for political purposes to support that lost war. The need for dozens of castles and palaces in England and Scotland is an anachronism. The need for one thousand staff at Buckingham Palace seems absurd but when living in Britain one has to accept feudalism. Billionaire Russians living in nearby Mayfair may wish to contemplate why Britain tolerates this level of apathy and ceromonial theatre.

Delain wrote in #10
The Dutch Republic was one of the first, if not the first, modern republics. ...The Netherlands was also the first with de facto freedom of religion, unheard of in those days.
Time to get rid of all these royals. Kingdoms belong to ancient history.

Hmm... the Dutch ''Republic'' was as '"Republic'' was the ''Seresnissima Republica'' of Venice. It was an oligarchy. Which often is worse than monarchy. The link with Venice does not end there - effectively the Netherlands were created with Venitian money. As soon as the Portuguese and the Spanish were finding their way around Africa to India as well opening the route to the new continent in the west, the Venitians knew their end would come so they sought to manipulate Spain, failed, then tried France and finally succeeded in Netherlands.
Thus , the Dutch were created out of the... river northwestern Germans of the Rhine Delta (thus Deutch...Dutch... same word...), the so called flat-Germans (actually most of north Germany spoke Dutch up to last century when the German state imposed the southern Bavarian dialect of 16th century protestant Martin Luther).

And they were such a nation that were created out of a rebellion against the Spanish over-rule which lasted .... 80 years and in which some 3-4 main battles took place in Netherlands while some 30 to 40 battles took place in Americas, Indias, Indonesias etc. So you understand how ''desperate'' were Dutch to become a nation... they were never a nation, they were  a commercial company since day one. They were more anxious to do pirate attacks against the Spanish commercial interests around the world than really ''liberate'' ''''''their'''''' ''''''''''''''''coun try''''''''''''''. What country? What nation is this that rebels against an occupying force fighting 10 times more battles on the other side of the world than in its own territory?